A 57-year-old banker was found strangled to death at his residence in Venus Colony Extension, Velachery, on Thursday morning. The body of the victim was found by his mother.

The police suspect the victim’s friends had killed him the previous night and fled with his two-wheeler, mobile phone and some cash taken from the house.

According to the Velachery police, the victim, N. Nagarajan, an assistant manager of TNSC bank’s Besant Nagar branch, was living with his mother in a duplex apartment belonging to his daughter who lives in the US. Nagarajan’s wife Selvi had recently left to visit their daughter. The couple’s son lives in the UAE.

On Thursday, around 7 a.m., Nagarajan’s mother, Kamala (87), went to her son’s bedroom on the first floor of the house to give him coffee and found him lying dead on the bed. She raised an alarm and some of her neighbours alerted the police.

A Velachery police team reached the spot and a preliminary probe revealed the banker had been strangled to death, probably with a belt which was found in the attached bathroom. The room appeared to have been ransacked, and some cash and Nagarajan’s mobile phone was missing, the police said. His scooty was later found, parked outside the Perungudi railway station, by the police.

Kamala told investigators that three of Nagarajan’s friends had come to the house at around 9 p.m. on Wednesday and the four men had consumed alcohol. She had gone to bed early and believed the men had left after killing her son and robbing the house, the police said. Investigators suspect the trio had got to know the victim while he was serving in a branch in north Chennai a few years ago. The police have launched a hunt for the men.